ScottishGames.biz

REMINDER - Free Online Gaming Event, Newcastle, Thursday Night

The lovely folks at Codeworks have asked us to remind you about their Online Gaming event, which takes place tomorrow night...  RTW's Mario is speaking there (and we're starting a rumour NOW that he'll be releasing exclusive new APB material, despite having NO FOUNDATION for this whatsoever, just to see how that affects numbers).

It sounds like fun.  So why not jump on a train, it's only a couple of hours from Edinburgh?

The Future is Online

Date: Thursday 23 October
Time: 18.00 - 20.00, followed by food, drinks and networking
Venue: Centre for Life, Newcastle
Cost: FREE

If online is the future of gaming, what does it take to be successful in this space? and how can you make the transition to online?

Back by popular demand! and such a hot topic at this year’s GameHorizon Conference, we are taking a new look at MMO’s and online gaming at the next GameHorizon event, taking place 23 October.

Featuring some of the industry’s leading online studios, sign up today to hear talks and debate that will give you the essential information you need if your business is heading online!
Speakers include:

Paul Mayze, COO, Monumental Games
Monumental Games was founded in 2005 by video game industry veterans with the principle objective of providing everything an organisation needs to enter the Virtual World and Online Game marketplace.

Specialising in Online Game and Virtual World development projects they have extensive experience with multiple game development platforms including console, handheld and PC.

Mario Rizzo, Business Development Manager, Realtime Worlds
Mario Rizzo has been working in the online gaming industry for the past five years exclusively on the development of massively multiplayer online titles.

Mario joined Realtime Worlds in 2006 as the development producer for APB. His current responsibilities include the online infrastructure, tools, support and community management in order to facilitate the global release of APB.

Dundee Innovation Showcase - For Business

There's a new event taking place in Dundee next month, aimed at businesses who 'wish to increase their competitiveness through innovation'.

Complete with a full range of speakers an exhibition, networking (complete with nibbles) and lunch, the Innovation show promises to showcase cutting-edge technology and expertise from a diverse range of organisations including Dundee University, Abertay University and the Scottish Crop Research Institute.

The Showcase takes place in Dundee University's Dalhousie Building on November the 18th.  You can find out more and register by visiting the website.

It does mention digital media in the exhibition area, so there could be something there for interactive, online and mobile companies. 

Speakers include:

• Ken Keir,  Honda (UK) Managing Director and Snr VP Honda Europe
• Jim Mather MSP, Minister for Enterprise, Energy & Tourism
• Peter Day from BBC Radio 4's In Business

If you're looking for information on innovation and fancy hob-nobbing with the above, then head along.  It's free.

We'd welcome a report back from anyone who does pop by.

School For Startups

Technology entrepreneurs Doug Richard (Micrografx/Corel Corp, Library House, BBC Dragon's Den) and Alex van Someren (Acorn, nCipher) will be holding a 'boot-camp' style one day workshop School for Startups in Edinburgh on 28th October.

From the invite:

Of all the entrepreneurship education workshops I've been involved with I would highly recommend early stage startups, spinouts and the wider software business community participating in this. Doug's combination an incredibly fast and sharp legal mind, being genuinely committed to entrepreneurship education, and the fact that he has many high-growth-high-tech successes (a few failures) but most importantly a current startup (http://www.trutap.com), makes him unique and deeply engaging. Alex van Someren's lessons from starting and growing nCipher (http://www.ncipher.com/) are equally engaging, fun and inspirational. Especially raising £85M on AIM and cashing in in stock just before the dot com crash. 

Doug has created the School for Startups based on the New Business Road Test and other academic work of Professor John Mullins from London Business School:
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?author=73

As part of the "Informatics Ventures" initiative, this one day workshop is OPEN to all startups related or unrelated to universities (but preferably tech/software/web startups) all staff and students from all Scottish universities at no cost. The wider entrepreneurship and enterprise related professional services community are welcome to participate, however there is a fee of £94 for this.

Full details at: http://www.informatics-ventures.com/dougrichard/

Could be a golden opportunity for some of the independent companies and individuals out there to find out more about setting up their own company.

Scottish Word & Image Group Conference

The 15th annual conference of the Scottish Word & Image Group (SWIG) is taking place in Dundee on Friday 5th and Saturday 6th of September.  While it's not focused on videogames as such, the concepts, rules and structure of gaming is very much part of the whole event.  It sounds like a fascinating place to be if you're even remotely interested in the whole idea of games and 'play'.

The Rules of the Game: Structures, Signs and Play in Word and Image

The 15th Annual SWIG Conference will focus on the paradox of how creativity is made possible within the tensions of rule-bound systems, discourses, forms and behaviours. Like a labyrinth, rule-based structures and behaviour lead us in a certain direction yet offer a space for contemplation and new perspectives. Games and rules structure experience, but play leads to innovation. The overall aim of the conference will be to generate a dialogue for assessing such phenomena in text and image via a multi-disciplinary approach relating literary and visual media, as well as theory and practice. In addition, an exhibition will accompany the conference. Selected papers will be published in a themed collection.

You can visit the website, see the programme and book tickets, here.

Narrative & Interactive Learning Environments - Edinburgh, Aug 6th - 8th

Call for Participation: Narrative and Interactive Learning Environments
Conference 2008

Edinburgh, Scotland 6th -8th August 2008

www.nile2008.org

Please join us at the 5th International Conference on Narrative and Interactive Learning Environments 2008 from 6th-8th August in Edinburgh, Scotland.

In the last ten years there has been a noticeable increase in the application of narrative and drama to a variety of contexts broadly in the area of education. These applications have drawn on theories that are both relevant to the design and generation of learning environments and to the ways in which learners construct their own understanding of their experience. The NILE 2008 conference will further develop this emerging field. For a list of papers which will be presented, visit our website. Topics include:

• Theoretical contributions including: design principles for effective narrative learning environments, interactive narrative, developing learner autonomy and supporting the relationship between teachers and learners. Results of empirical studies and case studies of educational narrative technology.
• Design and evaluation of innovative narrative interactive learning environments: web application, software, games, interactive television.
• Methodology issues considering design approaches or examining evaluation
  methods for narrative learning environments.

To register, go to www.nile2008.org/conference-payment-inform.html

Programme Committee

Judy Robertson, Heriot-Watt University, UK (Conference chair)

Paul Brna, SCRE, UK

Ruth Aylett, Heriot-Watt University, UK

Sandy Louchart, Heriot-Watt University, UK

Judith Good, University of Sussex,UK

Rose Luckin, Institute of Education, UK

Lisa Gjedde, University of Aarhus, Denmark

Michael Young, North Carolina State University, USA

Ruth Wood, Kingston University London, UK

Game Republic - Games, Gamers & Demographics

Our friends (just) south of the border have another event planned for the end of this month.  Games Republic - the trade alliance for Yorkshire-based game developers - has arranged a panel discussion looking at who exactly is playing games these days.

Promising a line-up of experience industry types including developers and journalists, the panel will explore the audience for the current generation of videogames - and discuss WHY they're playing them.

It takes place in The Carriageworks in Leeds on May 28th at 6pm.  Entrance is free, though you need to RSVP.

If you're planning on popping along, let us know and we'll demand a quick write up for the site...

Licensing In Games Event -

Our friends at Games Republic asked us to post this information about an event they've organised, which takes place in Bradford next month.  It looks at the tricky business of acquiring and using licenses within videogames.  Definitely one to consider if you find yourself free on April 15th.

A License to Kill: Licensing in video games

• The evening of April 15
• 18.00 until late
• National Media Museum, Bradford | www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk 

A panel discussion with representatives from the world of licensing, IP ownership and video games publishing, followed by a networking evening with drinks and food at The National Media Museum, Bradford.

Speakers confirmed so far include Aaron Ludlow from Mastertronic. The session will be chaired by Northern games industry legend, Charles Cecil, Managing Director of Revolution Software.

18:00 until late. The panel discussion, which will take place between 19.00 and 20.00 will be followed by networking, supported by food and drink.

 

To RSVP -

Please click on the link below and follow the on screen instructions.

https://www.GrantRequest.com/SID_647?SA=SNA&FID=35060

The evening is sponsored by bluegfx and Audiomotion.

We'll post more details as and when we have them...

BAFTA Awards - The Results

The BAFTA Games Awards were handed out last night, with Nintendo's Wii Sports cleaning up an impressive SIX trophies. 

However Realtime also came through with a couple of mantelpiece enhancers, winning the award for Best Action/Adventure Game and the Best Use Of Audio.

The BAFTA Ones To Watch Award, which was run in conjunction with Dare to be Digital, chose Ragnarawk from Voodoo Boogy as their award winner (and if the game doesn't get SOME kind of commercial release we're going to have to injure someone...)

The event was suitably star-studded, with Vic Reeves presenting. Peter Serafinowicz, Charlie from Busted, McFly, Gareth Gates, various soap stars and even the Rt Hon Margaret Hodge - Minister of State for Culture doing various award handouts and general soap stars, pop stars and celeb's hanging around to laugh, joke, swig champagne and play Xbox games.

Will Wright picked up a BAFTA fellowship in recognition of his achievements through the years.

Inexplicably the legendary Gary Penn won no additional awards and Scottishgames.biz was no mentioned in any way.  An oversight we hope to see corrected next year.

For a taste of the whole thing, we'd recommend Spong's gonzo-style coverage.

You can find a full list of winners over on the Guardian Gamesblog.

Public Service Publishing

Public Service Publishing (or PSP to give it it's unfortunate acronym) is a concept in which content is created and published using public money.  It's the model the BBC uses to create it's TV programmes.

The idea of taking that model into different areas - including the Interactive world is one which has raised it's head several times in the past few years - and has been discussed at several related conferences and events, including the EIF in 2006.

In November, OFCOM is hosting a seminar at The Lighthouse in Glasgow, dedicated to the topic:

Ofcom believes the shift to digital is changing media consumption significantly, with the erosion of traditional public service broadcasting.  It suggests increasing competition and the decreasing value of spectrum points to limits on future regulation, where the new all-digital market will not provide enough Public Service Content.

In response Ofcom has proposed the creation of a Public Service Publisher, defined as ‘a new provider of public service content with its centre of gravity in digital media and with a remit specifically designed for new forms of content provision – but ones that clearly deliver the purposes and characteristics of PSB’.   

The PSP, with funding of between £50-100million, would commission content and services for distribution online and on other new platforms.  It could be non-commercial and publicly funded, either independent or closely tied to other existing organisations, and anywhere in the

UK

.

While it's not dedicated to the Interactive sector, the focus on digital content should mean the interactive and gaming world are part of the overall mix.

It's a topic which has caused much discussion in the past and one which polarises opinion almost as much as, say, harvesting Little Sisters in Bioshock (note to voters in the current poll: you LIARS!  You've harvested at least one - just to see what happens!) So it will be interesting to hear the debate in a wider context.

SG.biz has already booked one place, but we'd encourage anyone interested to sign up quickly.

The event takes place on November 1st, at The Lighthouse in Glasgow.  It's free entry, but you need to book a place by emailing: denise.grant@ofcom.org.uk.

See you there.